Formerly "Black Dog Blog". I changed the name since these pages are not aimed at dog-lovers and there are many "Black Dog Blogs". This blog is intended to offer odds and ends of information that I hope will be interesting and amusing. Perhaps less amusing will be my occasional rants and metaphorical sighs about and at the world we live in, its governance and population.

Why this Blog?

A place where I can lament the changing times; for eccentric comments on current affairs and for unfashionable views, expressed I hope, in cogent style; also occasional cris de coeur largely concerned, I regret to say, with myself.

Comments

I welcome your comments, so do please write. Please note however that all comments are moderated prior to publication. Whilst I fully appreciate that life can be frustrating, nevertheless, abuse, SMS language and illiteracy will not be tolerated!

Tuesday, 19 August 2008

Evidently I am not Alone!

Gizmodo reports that a survey of 3000 users has revealed that no less than a third have removed Vista and replaced it with XP on their computers; the article actually says "downgraded" but of course I cannot agree with this!

My past market research experience tells me that a sample of 3000 is statistically robust even in such a large "universe" so the results can be taken as representative.

There is a large number of comments following the Gizmodo article, I have selected one which brings back vivid, but not fond, memories of my Vista experience:

I had Vista for a few weeks before removing it. For me it draws a ridiculous amount of system resources but didn't perform any faster. With 2gb of ram it took longer to load aps than on XP with only 1gb. I did like the look of it but it seemed to me like that's all it was, an overblown facelift that really wasn't needed. They changed things around just for the sake of changing them to make them LOOK better. I was really drawn into it initially when I had heard about the ReadyBoost feature of using flash drives to be allocated as RAM, but quickly realized that the OS is so inefficient in regards to the usage of system resources that it was a necessity. But the biggest annoyance was dealing with crap like this:

Me: (drops file in the Recycle Bin)

Vista: Are you sure you want to do that?

Me: (clicks yes)

Vista: By doing this action you permanently delete this file. Are you sure you still want to do this?

Me: (click yes again)

Vista: Are you sure you don't want to hang on to this? You have plenty of space available I would hate to see you need it later and not have it. Do you wish to continue with the deletion of the file?

Me: (click yes yet again)

Vista: Maybe you should check with your neighbor Ted. He knows more about this kind of thing than you do. You should get his opinion first before proceeding. He is home right now. Go ahead and call him and then click yes or no.

Me: (clicks yes 8 times really fast)

Vista: First of all there is no need for an attitude. You want me to delete the damn file, I will delete the damn file, but I know that due to your response time you didn't bother to call Ted.....jerk.

Let's hear about it

About Me

A smoker for over 40 years, I am, contrary to all the statistics the nanny government feeds us, still here, and, as I have been for the past thirty years, still grumbling about so-called democratic governments interfering in our personal lives. And if you are worried about "passive smoking" don't bother complaining: I don't believe the data! The same applies to the outrageous rubbish spouted about "global warming" which of course is a lie.